Bru Refugees repatriation from Tripura to their villages in Mizoram

The Central government has recently signed an agreement with the Mizoram Bru Refugees Displaced Forum (MBRDF) to accommodate Bru Refugees repatriation from camps in Tripura to their villages in Mizoram.

As per the agreement signed between Mizoram Bru Refugees Displaced Forum (MBRDF), Union home minister, CM of Tripura and CM of Mizoram, 32,876 Bru refugees would head home before September 30 to Mizoram from camps in North Tripura.

According to agreement each of the 5,407 families will get 5,000 rupees per month along with free ration for two years, a 1.5 lakh rupees assistance is also promised for house-building.

The agreement also promised a sum of four lakh to be kept in a fixed deposit in the name of the head of each of the 5,407 families for two years and it can be withdrawn only on the condition that they would have to remain in Mizoram for at least three years in a row.

The move including the first phase of repatriation which took place in 2010, will make the closure of these camps. The camps are being run by central government since the refugees fled home after ethnic clashes with the majority Mizo community in 1996.

MBRDF, a signatory to the agreement is pulling out of the agreement due to strong agitation by the Bru refugees. They want three more points inserted into it:

1) Cluster villages with at least 500 families in each one.
2) A development council.
3) An amount of Rs four lakh promised in the agreement to be given at one go in their savings accounts before they move to Mizoram.

As per the first demand giving the money at one go is not an issues for central government but the other two demands seem impossible. For the second demand the Mizoram government needs to provide land in the two districts to have cluster villages and it has already expressed its inability to do so. The formation of the development council is a political demand which the state government will have to agree but it's not happening soon.